A BOOK OF - QUAKER SAINTS.• THERE is a Persian proverb
which runs thus : " The ways unto Clod are as the number of the souls of the children of men." Now- adays we suppose that the great majority of men who profess any religion believe this, but only in the Society of Friends would it be officially admitted. In A Book of Quaker Saints, written for the instruction of Quaker children, it is twice quoted ; indeed, it might almost be called the text of the whole work. Mr. Hodgkin has no wish to proselytize. Here is the summing-up of his last chapter : " Is our simple Quaker way of worship really worth the price they [the 'Quaker saints] paid for it ? Or is it merely a quaint and interesting relic of a bygone age ? " This is a question which he leaves to his yoUng Quaker readers, to answer for themselves, only saying " Even if this is our way, the right way for us, this very ample Quaker way that our forefathers won for us at such a cost, still that does not necessarily make it the right way for all other people too." " The only really antiquated kind of worship " is that which is informed by-the spirit of rivalry and pride, and which says "My way is the only right way, and a much better way than your way."
Certainly the Quaker saints suffered fearful persecutions that they might preserve this " way," and Mr. Hodgkin's recital of their sufferings, if it does not make converts—and it is not even designed to do • so—must at least make sympathizer& Prison life in the seventeenth century was far more horrible than it is now ; it was far less humane, and yet in a certain sense more human. George Fox -in the indescribable filth and squalor of Reading Gaol was buoyed up by the thought that he' was of real use to the prisoners. He pleaded with the authorities for a girl condemned to death for petty larceny, and he got her off. When first he preached to his fellows they did' not listen much, but when they struck him and he put his hands in his pockets they were taken aback and became attentive. When the gaoler's threats of hanging and the Mows of those he still considered his friends failed to depress him, one man 'at least " You 'are a happy man who can bear these things." Even the warders were touched, and at last George Fox came out, having had a deeply interesting spiritual adventure, not- a period of spirit-breaking dullness. But let any one who is tempted to think that things are no better than they were read further on of the death from gaol-fever of little Mary Samm, who was admitted to Warwick Prison to attend upon her • grandfather. She was incar- cerated for what he thought the truth. The story is almost too sad to be borne,- and what the state of mind of the authorities can have been who thus afflicted age and youth it -is impossible to
• conceive. Nevertheless she was allowed to have her mother with her and was tenderly nursed at the last. -
- • A Book of Quaker Saint:. BY L. Y. Hodgkin, London: T. N. Forms. Les. net.l It is probable that all men. whom any religious community have regarded as 'saints 'posseseed some- loria of inagnetilith will& the world does not undenstand. It was no doubt-the effort to explain this miraculous charm which led the-early hagiographers to Invent and impute so many pointless miracles. St. Francis is, we 'suppose, the extreme instance of the 'working of this spell. George FoX had something of the same power, and as we read of the criminate and wotidlings, the highwaymen and depraved prisoners, whose way of thought and manner of life were actually converted by inter- course with the travelling preacher " in the leathern breeches," we feel we are in presence of a force of 'which there is no human explanation. Certain men are born with boundlees courage and without capacity for rancour. They are removed from the natural man by an-immense gulf, yet something in him never fails to answer to their call. Upon one occasion a Judge recorded that he 'could not get from George Fox any particulars of his own ill-treatment. He had been beaten nearly to death by a rabble of churchgoers. No one had raised a finger for his protection. but a soldier who demanded fair play. Fox would give-no one up to justice. He " made nothing of his injuries," and " spoke as a man who had not been concerned."
Most of the strange successes here claimed for the Quaker saints are susceptible of a reasonable explanation—i.e., if we add the incalculable element of the personal equation to a few not im- probable coincidences, we can account for them. For instance, the story of the tanner who put the following advertisement into a newspaper and changed a thief into a trustworthy servant is per- fectly credible given a particular advertiser and a particular thief :- " Whoever stole a lot of hides on the fifth day of the present month is hereby informed that their owner has a sincere wish to be his friend. If poverty tempted him to this false step the owner will keep the whole transaction secret, and will gladly put him in the way of obtaining money by means more likely to bring him peace of mind."
On the other hand, the safe voyage of the ' Woodhouse' with sixteen souls aboard across the Atlantic is very difficult to explain unless we admit that she was miraculously steered. (Her voyage is historically certain.) But the only other instance in Waich it, is even suggested that we should believe the very unlikely seems to us to offer no insuperable difficulty of explanation. A Quaker seaman was constantly condemned to punishment, but his fetters fell from him and his back showed no signs of the lash. That -a certain amount of play-acting went on among men who were only half-hearted in their persecution of their victim seems obvious. That he was able by his imperturbability to change the angry contempt of his officers and the bullying propensities of half-civilized sailors into respect and pity is not difficult of belief ; but this is simply an instance of " the patience of the saints," which at last always commands deference.
Whether this book is a suitable one for children may be doubted. It has certainly a deep interest for their elders. It is unfortunate, - we think, that in order to make it readable for the younger sort Mr. Hodgkin has in some of the stories left the historic record and enlarged out of his own head. (We should add that in each instance he accuses himself of his fanciful digression, so no student is liable to deception.) The prefatory chapter headed "A Talk about Saints " strikes us also as over-childish. If the book runs to a second edition, it would surely be better without it. But one must not be hypercritical of a compilation which is successful in the depiction of the fascination of saints.
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